


we   are   but  ashes on the cathedral floor

by nikmood



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Gen, Hermione Granger is a Good Friend, Manipulative Albus Dumbledore, Post-Battle of Hogwarts, This Is Why We Can't Have Nice Things
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-29
Updated: 2018-11-29
Packaged: 2019-09-02 05:26:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 597
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16780519
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nikmood/pseuds/nikmood
Summary: the wizarding word thinks it's lost a pillar of greatness.  and hermione continued to let this belief fester...until the battle was over.





	we   are   but  ashes on the cathedral floor

**Author's Note:**

> Huge thanks to Ambs to looking this over.
> 
> And for the Roger to my Mark, happy birthday. I swear you'll get the Remione goodness before we both turn forty.

Attending Hogwarts was horrible, and anyone who was even remotely honest with themselves would freely admit this. 

No, actually, it was Hell. A hierarchy of hell. Hogwarts Hierarchy of Hell. Maslow would be crushed, I tell you, to discover that an insane and megalomaniacal wizard had established his own fully functional hierarchy. Albus probably stole the concept from the psychologist, after all, it shows a remarkable blueprint for how he broke Harry. 

And oh how Albus Dumbledore broke Harry, much like he broke so many others. We're fixing each other, though. Nothing much can be done about the past except to cry a bit and to learn from it. Oh, and remember those that sacrificed, and were sacrificed in the name of the Greater Good. 

The future will be wide open, and it belongs to us all, no matter feathers, fur, scales, or claws.

When the wounded were tucked away in St. Mungo's and the Hospital Wing, and the deceased had been laid to rest, Remus found Hermione sitting under a tree near Dumbledore's grave. He heard the soft murmuring of her voice, and decided not to disturb her visitation with the fallen Leader of the all mighty "Greater Good." The werewolf was about to turn back to the castle to give her some privacy when her voice carried on the wind and his ... gifted hearing picked up on what she was saying.

"You're a son of a bitch, you know that? You had children fighting your war for you. Children who aren't even old enough to drive a car, in the muggle world, or take their apparition test DIED for your Greater Good,” she spat with disgust.

“‘You can't conceive, nor can I, the appalling strangeness of the mercy of God,’ says Graham Greene. A Muggle, by the way. Well, the appalling strangeness of the mercy of God has nothing on how incredibly twisted you are. It's a miracle that Harry's alive and functional. It's a miracle that Gin isn't a sociopath after she was possessed by a teenage Tom Riddle when she was only 11. It's a miracle no one at this school ever killed anyone, or themselves, because of your insatiable need to pit the houses against each other. Sirius spent twelve years in Azkaban! You could have had him released in a matter of hours, but that didn't fit into your vision.

"I committed a great many sins during my sentence here at Hogwarts. I lied, I stole, I was carelessly violent. The greatest sin of them all, however, was believing in you. Tell me, Professor, does knowing that I know what you really are, deep down in your twisted core, does this please you to know, you feckless thug?"

Pulling her wand loose from where it was stuck in her hair, Hermione transfigured a rock into a large bundle of rosemary and placed it atop the final resting place of Albus Dumbledore. She turned to walk away but twisted back around at the last moment.

"Eas in crucem," she said loudly and clearly.

The words brought a visable sense of release to the witch, who rolled her shoulders back and tilted her face towards the sun that broken through the morass of clouds. Remus was about to walk over and comfort her when suddenly fiend fire blanketed Dumbledore's  
tomb and for a moment it seemed to burn with Hermione's white hot rage. 

The fire went out, leaving no remanents behind, save Remus having yet another reminder as to how remarkable Hermione was, and why one should never get on her bad side.


End file.
